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<title>Sometimes Tragedy Leads you Home by TheShaddowedSnow</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24223924">Sometimes Tragedy Leads you Home</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShaddowedSnow/pseuds/TheShaddowedSnow'>TheShaddowedSnow</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Earths 53 through 105 [12]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>DCU, DCU (Comics), Sideways (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adoption, Carrie Kelley is Robin, Child Abandonment, Family Bonding, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Other, Trauma, selective mute carrie kelley, this is a lot fluffier than the tags make it out too be</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:54:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,077</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24223924</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShaddowedSnow/pseuds/TheShaddowedSnow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Two stories. Two Families.</p><p>In the midst of loss, families find each other.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bart Allen/Jaime Reyes, Damian Wayne/Colin Wilkes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Earths 53 through 105 [12]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1324367</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Carrie Kelly</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>"Don't look, okay?" That was the first thing Carrie heard as the shock settled and she could even process anything again. It was impossible not to look though. Her parents, her slightly neglectful but still </span>
  <em>
    <span>there </span>
  </em>
  <span>parents were on the floor, dead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Their killer was not even five feet away, also on the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carrie is pretty sure she screamed, or cried, but the next thing she knew, the nine-year-old was being picked up and something heavy enough to add a soothing pressure was placed over most of her body and she was being carried out of there. Everything was moving so fast, too fast for her to process. The constant pressure, however, kept her grounded. The ginger definitely remembered begging for them to let her keep the heavy thing around her. Carrie clutched it close like a lifeline and trembled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Hey." That voice was back, gentler now, quieter. Carrie liked the voice. "The EMS crew just want to help, okay? You can have it right back and I can even be here the whole time," the voice soothed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Promise?" Carrie croaked out. "I don't want to be alone. Please don't leave me! Please! I don't wanna be alone!" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Sh… Sh it's okay I'm right here," the voice murmured. "I'm not going to leave you."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Promise?" Carried murmured softly as the cap was removed and the medical staff looked her over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I promise." Damian looked to the medical staff as the ginger was suitably calmed. "How bad is it?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"No physical injuries," one of the EMS workers said. "But she's in shock, I can't imagine what she just went through." Damian nodded and looked to the ginger girl as she rewrapped herself in Damian’s cap. She was so young and vulnerable and completely alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Carrie?” A nurse knocked on her door before entering. She got her own room courtesy of the man who was with her, Damian Wayne. He had heard about what happened and thought it’d be best for her. “There’s someone here to see you.” It had been a week since Carrie was admitted into the trauma part of the hospital.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carrie blinked and looked over, the ginger having not said anything since the event that completely destroyed her world. Her therapist, luckily, was a good one and had been teaching her sign language and allowed her to write things out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello Carrie, I’m Damian, my partner would have come as well, but he had work,” Damian said with a smile. He had been told not to approach unless the small girl allowed it. “I’m here to talk to you about something.” Carrie nodded and gestured for Damian and the nurse to come closer.  Damian glanced at the nurse, who nodded. The Arabic male nodded back and smiled as he approached and sat in one of the rather comfy chairs in the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘What is it?’ </span>
  <span>was written on a piece of paper and showed to Damian. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well… You’ll be discharged soon,” Damian said. “And my partner Colin and I are more than willing to take you into our home.” Carrie’s eyes widened and quickly scribbled in the notebook again. “Batman asked us.” There was a pause, and some erasing, before more writing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘If Batman trusts you, I do.’ </span>
  <span>Damian smiled and nodded. He’d have to see if Colin was up for coming to this part of the hospital anytime soon so he could meet Carrie. For many reasons, this was not his favorite place to be, but the male ginger would most likely understand that Carrie would want to meet him before coming home with them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Colin hated hospitals. They smelt too sterile, too clean. The white walls and fluorescent lights were too bright and clean. Colin always needed a slight mess to feel comfortable somewhere,e and he had no doubt it had something to do with how anal one of the nuns had always been and how quick she was to puns for even a small speck of dust, and this place.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carrie’s room, at least, looked more like a hotel room than a hospital room. Sure there was the usual hospital bed, too white walls and floors, and the same plain white blinds that seemed to be in every hospital, but there were splashes of color here or there and the chairs were much more comfortable than standard hospital chairs. It was still sterile, still clean, but it was much easier to deal with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Carrie, this is Colin, my partner,” Damian said, and Carried nodded, allowing them inside the room properly with the nurse. “Since you’ll be discharged in three days, he wanted to come to get to know you.” Colin gave Damian a grateful look as the older male squeezed his hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s wonderful to meet you Carrie,” Colin turned to the girl. Carrie smiled weakly and nodded, waving. It had been two days since Damian had visited her on his own.  Carrie smiled shyly and the three got to getting to know each other, mainly the two twenty-something-year-olds getting to know Carrie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carrie was a sweet girl, if a little shy and wary of the adult strangers, not that they blamed the red-head. She did like heroes, however, and especially liked Batman. Colin found this particularly amusing and Damian couldn't find in it to mind how his partner would inevitably tease the older male for weeks for it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He didn’t,” Flash, aka Bart Allen, snickered as Damian came into the League meeting four months later. Damian ignored him and gave Carrie an encouraging nod as the new Robin trailed close behind the Dark Knight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Everyone,” he spoke up as the meeting started. “This is my daughter and the new Robin, Carrie Kelley. She is quite skilled in her own right and I hope you’ll give her a warm welcome.” Carrie waved.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘Hello,’ she signed effortlessly, Damian and Colin having learned sign language alongside her. She could speak up now, with minor things, but she was still mostly mute. ‘It;s nice to meet you all.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘Nice to meet you too,’ Billy signed. ‘Can you hear?’ Carried nodded, and he smiled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are your father’s son,” Bart teased his friend. “I mean, you’re what? A year younger than Bruce was when he adopted Dick?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Something like that,” Damian hummed. “Tim has more kids than me, though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For now,” Cassie, the current Wonder Woman, mused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I have no doubt he’ll have five kids in three years,” Bart snickered.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>If you want to know what happened to Carrie Kelley's parents, they were murdered in a game of Russian roulette put on by Haley Dent, my OC whose Harvey Dent's daughter. The family was kidnapped and Dent forced them to play.</p><p>Only Carrie came out of it alive</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Derek James</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>If you haven't read Derek James's comics (He's Sideways if you don't know) I more than just HIGHLY recommend them. They're amazing and he's a tragically underappreciated character</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Bart understood the irony, thank-you-very-much. He didn’t plan on ever finding his clone/brother (son now) Thad. He also didn’t plan on adopting Sideways, aka Derek James, nearly five months later. It was an accident! However, when a kid hero confines in you that his </span>
  <em>
    <span>father</span>
  </em>
  <span> has decided he no longer wants to be Derek’s father because Derek was a hero well… What was Bart supposed to do?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you, really,” Derek said as Bart and Jaime helped him grab his things. “You didn’t have too.” Bart gave a pointed look at David as he responded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course, I didn’t have to, but I want to. You deserve a safe, welcoming, and accepting home where you don’t have to worry about being rejected for being who you are.” The three left after that, and Bart shook his head. How could anyone just reject their kid? Thaddeus had rejected both Meloni and Thad, and it never settled there. It made something twist and curl in him rather unpleasantly at the thought of anyone having to face rejection from their family.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thad looked over after his family got home and rose a brow, then froze as he looked into Derek's eyes. He hated that particular power for this very reason. The blond went over and held his hand out to the Puerto Rican descent teen. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thad, Allen.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Derek James.” Derek shook his hand and smiled before looking around the rather lovely two-story house with interest. It was in the suburbs of Central City, in a surprisingly affluent neighborhood. The entire house was a mess of different art on the walls, statues, and just stuff, Bart having needed to fill up space since he never had an opportunity like that before coming to the past. “Nice place.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s your place now, too,” Thad hummed. “Trust me, these two wouldn't kick out a fly, so you don’t have to worry about that,” at Derek’s confused look, Thad explained, “I can see into people’s timelines, plus they explained to me why they were taking you in. My dads are pretty cool. We also have a dog, Blaze, whose dad’s service dog. Bart is Dad, and I call Jaime papi by the way. Their brains still reset when I calm them. I’ll shut up now because I’m rambling.” Derek chuckled, and Bart shook his head in amusement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thad, can you help us get everything inside and to Derek’s room?” Thad nodded, and Jaime snorted as the two speedsters zoomed out of the house.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll show you to your room then.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, what was it like?” Thad asked later that night. Jaime and Bart were at a league meeting, both leaving reluctantly since it was Derek’s first night with them, so the two teens were hanging out in Derek’s new room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What was what like?” The older teen asked, running a hand through his hair. He knew what Thad meant, though. It was the first thing anyone ever asked him since it wasn’t like it was a huge secret. “I don’t remember anything from the Dark multiverse, well, my first trip there. It messes with my powers, though, so I’m not inclined to go back any time soon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I meant making your portals, but okay,” Thad shrugged. “I know what that’s like, I saw it in your timeline. Just because you don’t remember it doesn’t mean those four days didn’t happen.” Derek looked surprised but nodded slowly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, what’s it like to use your speed? It’s hard to explain how exactly it feels. It’s like… I guess a buzzing? Or static. It also feels like when your stomach drops on a rollercoaster.” Thad nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Using my chronokinesis feels very much the same,” Thad admitted. “What’s your favorite food?” The two went back and forth, asking each other questions and getting to know their new sibling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time Bart and Jaime got back, the thirteen and sixteen year olds were chatting and joking around, having already eaten. Bart smiled softly at them, and Jaime led him upstairs to get changed. It was good the two were getting along so well, mainly because Thad didn’t generally trust people.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’ll both be okay,” Jaime smiled softly and kissed Bart’s temple. “You did a good thing, taking them both in.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?” Bart smiled at his husband and relaxed against him. He knew Derek would need time to settle and adjust to being in their home, especially after being rejected by the only family he’d ever known. However, they had all the time in the world, and Thad at least wasn’t going to be an issue, not that Bart thought he’d be intentionally antagonistic. Still, Thad never warmed up to people right away, and Bart had been prepared to have to convince him even to acknowledge Derek existed, let alone be accepting of him into their family.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who has the adopting problem now?” Damian joked as Bart brought Derek, in his Sideways uniform, to a league meeting three months after the brown-haired teen joined Bart’s family. “You must be Derek then.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yep, also go as Sideways,” Derek nodded, not at all surprised Batman of all people figured it out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damian then,” Damian hummed. “A pleasure.” If Derek was surprised, no one could tell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bart chuckled and shook his head, smiling at his son. So he may have more kids than Damian did currently, no big deal. Derek and Thad were his sons and family, and he would gladly take the teasing remarks and jokes if it meant the two of them would continue to be happy and relatively-safe in his home. After all, Derek was Sideways, and Bart knew Thad wanted to make his debut in the Superhero community as Inertia soon. As much as it worried Bart that Thad wanted to use Inertia as his name, he trusted that the blond knew what he was doing and would support him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were a family, after all, and family supported each other.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><div class="children module" id="children">
  <b class="heading">Works inspired by this one:</b>
  <ul>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27704954">Today Until Forever</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/incorrectbatfam/pseuds/incorrectbatfam">incorrectbatfam</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</div></div></div>
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